147 PROJECT HERMES
Damen watched from the shadowed upper floor of a derelict building overlooking the compound.
Through the cracks in the wall, he saw the Veyran convoy rolling in — armored trucks, mobile cannons, and two heavy artillery tanks.
The air vibrated with the hum of engines and the metallic rhythm of soldiers locking into formation. They hadn't come for negotiation.
They had come to level the place.
"It's about bloody time you came", Damen sighed a relief.
Moments later, alarms blared across the Zetheris complex. Tower lights snapped on, painting the night in crimson and silver.
A dome of blue energy surged outward over the facility—the perimeter shield—thick, shimmering, and nearly impenetrable.
Seconds later, the first Veyran shells struck.
Explosions rippled across the barrier like stones thrown into water, lighting the sky with overlapping shockwaves of flame and plasma. The shield held, but it trembled under the relentless barrage.
Damen narrowed his eyes. "The shield's working," he murmured. "But not for long."
As the Veyrans reloaded for another volley, the gates of the Zetheris fortress ground open all of a sudden.
Through smoke and blinding light emerged four figures, fully armored and costumed, their capes snapping in the shockwaves—each bearing the Insignia A across their chest.
The Heroes of Atheris had come to meet the assault.
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Nymeris struck first, her body hovering above the Veyran armored line like a storm goddess. With a flick of her wrist, her lightning whip cracked through the air — a blinding arc of electricity that smashed into one of the advancing tanks, flipping it backward with a thunderous crash.
The tank's force field absorbed most of the blow, but its firing rhythm shattered, giving the Zetheris perimeter shield a much-needed reprieve.
Then their assault escalated.
Dozens of radiant serpents emerged from Orya.
These were manifestations of her light-based energy that slithered through the air, weaving toward the enemy lines. The glowing constructs struck the Veyran soldiers and metas alike, scattering the weaker ones and forcing the stronger metas to conjure defensive barriers to hold them off.
Thrynn, meanwhile, stood motionless beside his team, his chrome-scaled armor glinting beneath the flashes of battle. He didn't attack — not yet.
His role was clear: to guard his allies and strike only when the opportunity demanded it. His role was defense, not damage dealing.
Acyros was nowhere to be seen, her presence was hidden from the battlefield.
Damen knew what that meant — she was waiting for the right moment to unleash her Anti-Meta field.
Then the Veyran family meta humans retaliated.
Rising into the sky, they gathered their energy in a synchronized motion, their hands glowing with condensed power. The air howled as their secret technique, the Veyran Channeling, ignited.
This was their family's legacy, a skill that let them amplify their power to challenge even higher-ranked foes.
The sky darkened as roaring tornadoes burst forth, ripping through the clouds and hurling toward the Atheris heroes.
"Anemokinesis."
Below, the tanks — recovering from the earlier chaos — rolled back into formation and resumed their bombardment, pounding the Zetheris fortress with earth-shaking fury again.
Nymeris and Orca fell back at the threat. The powerful conjured tornado from the Veyran metas wasn't something they could defend against…but neither was it their role to defend against it.
Thrynn moved with a blur of silver light.
He dashed headlong into the Veyran formation, his fist smashing through their force fields in a single devastating blow. The barriers shimmered, cracked, and began to collapse under his relentless strikes.
The battle quickly turned one-sided.
The Veyran formation faltered as Thrynn shattered their force-field defenses, tearing through the channeling metas one after another.
Nymeris's lightning whips reduced the siege tanks to molten wrecks, while Orya's conjured serpents of light slithered across the battlefield, scattering soldiers and low-ranked metas in panic.
"The Veyrans are pitiful!" Nymeris laughed, arcs of lightning dancing around her. "Just the three of us are enough to wipe out their entire army!"
But her laughter died abruptly.
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One moment, the Zetheris thought they had the upper hand, the next moment the heaven turned against them.
A thunderous roar split the air as an enormous craft appeared over the horizon—sleek, armored, and impossibly vast. It was a destroyer-class ship, but something about its structure was wrong.
Panels along its flanks unfolded, revealing massive limbs; the control tower reshaped itself into a head crowned with antenna-like horns.
"What in hell is that?" Thrynn growled.
He got his answer when the machine's colossal hand slammed into him with blinding speed. He managed to block once, but the next blow sent him crashing into the ground, his armor dented and sparking.
"Thrynn!" Nymeris and Orya shouted in disbelief.
"Warships are not allowed inside cities", Thrynn screamed.
The machine's voice boomed across the battlefield…metallic, deep, and unmistakable. "Neither are Rank-B metas permitted in this city… and yet here you stand."
It was Valtor Veyran's voice.
Project Hermes had arrived.
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"Damn, the Veyrans have a big bad mech," Damen muttered in awe.
This was the first time he's seen one- a Mech. These powerful constructs were war machines meant for major battles… not inner city conflicts.
"Would the mech turn the tide of battle for the Veyran, Big Brother?" Kail asked from his secret room monitoring the battle live.
"I don't know… but these kinds of machines could be scaled depending on the components. If they have the right parts, it could rival even an S-Rank", Damen said.
"Then the Zetheris is dead this time", Kail said on the comms.
Damen shook his head. "The Zetheris hasn't shown its trump card yet."
"What can they come up with against a Mech?... another Mech?" Kail asked.
Then, without warning, the mecha's engines sputtered for no reason. The titanic frame shuddered and began to fall from the sky, crashing down in a burst of dust and fire.
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"We're losing power!" an operator cried.
Valtor's eyes narrowed. He's seen this kind of meta power before.
"Switch to standby energy—now. The Anti-Meta Field is active," he screamed.
A tremor of realization rippled through the crew. The Anti-Meta field was preventing their engines from supplying meta power to the Mech's body.
All meta energy in range was neutralized.
Hermes stabilized on the ground, its systems crippled. Meta batteries drained quickly while its energy was leaking faster than it could recharge.
But the suppression cut both ways.
Nymeris and Orya's powers winked out mid-flight, hurling them to the ground like falling stars.
Valtor seized the moment. "Charge the fortress! We must at least break their bloody shields."
The massive mecha thundered forward, its engines firing the last of its stored power, smashing through the compound's failing perimeter shield.
But as the Anti-Meta field intensified, the machine's movements slowed, its systems choking under the energy drain.
Valtor slammed his fist on the console. "Damn it! One Rank-B meta… and our greatest weapon is crippled!"
Then came the good news.
Fortunately for them, the building's force field was also weakened by the Anti-Meta field. Walls crumbled under its stride, explosions rippling through the Zetheris defenses.
"Boom"
The Zetheris facility's perimeter force field was finally destroyed by the force of the Mech's final charge.
"We broke through the force field, what now, Brother?" Belgore asked, grim and breathless.
Valtor exhaled sharply. "Now we fight the old-fashioned way."
From the horizon, Veyran support vehicles roared in—trucks and armored carriers bristling with mounted guns and missile pods.
There were no meta-skills, and no artifacts—just steel and bullets.
Inside the fortress, the Zetheris soldiers armed themselves in turn, rallying behind their heroes.
The city trembled as both sides prepared for war—metal against metal, man against machine, vengeance against pride.
A bloody battle ensues.
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